There is no moral argument against veganism, meaning that nobody can say it's immoral. So the real question is this; is veganism more moral than eating animals? If you’re presented with two scenarios, with all things being equal, is it more moral to kill an animal or to not kill an animal? This article presents a scenario that illustrates the point, and shows that veganism is always the more moral choice:

https://defendingveganism.com/articles/is-veganism-the-more-moral-choice

Vegans are well aware that animals are killed by the non-vegan farmers that grow and harvest our food. This isn’t news to us. But the average meat eater’s diet results in up to 100 times more animal deaths than a vegan’s diet. That’s because vegans eat the same food as meat eaters, with the exception of meat, dairy, eggs, and honey, which means substantially less animals are killed for our diet.

A meat eater’s diet is responsible for:

1. The animals that die directly from the animal-based foods that they eat (meat, eggs, dairy, and honey).

2. The animals that die from growing and harvesting the food that those animals eat (various animal feeds such as soy, corn, grain, hay, etc.)

3. The animals that die from growing and harvesting the non-animal foods in the meat eater's diet (fruits, vegetables, grains, legumes, etc.)

As vegans, only #3 applies to us.

And that’s just the diet, when you factor in that vegans don’t wear leather, don’t use health and beauty supplies that contain animal products, don’t use products tested on animals, etc. that number is even higher.

If you’re a non-vegan concerned about crop deaths, the best thing you can do is go vegan, because most crops we grow are for livestock animals to eat. If we eliminated animal agriculture, we could feed the entire world a vegan diet using only 25% of the land we use today for agriculture, which would mean a 75% reduction in crop deaths, not to mention we wouldn’t be needlessly slaughtering 90 billion land animals a year (trillions when you count marine life.)

All of this information and more is covered in this article about crop deaths and land use. The facts, data, and statistics cited within it come from reputable sources such as Oxford University, Cornell University, the American Soybean Association, and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA):

https://defendingveganism.com/articles/do-vegans-kill-animals-too

Saying something is right because “we’ve always done it this way” is a terrible argument. That sentiment has been used to promote slavery, denying women the right to vote, preventing LGBTQIA+ people from marrying, and all sorts of other forms of discrimination.

Then there is also the literal question “haven’t we always eaten meat?” We’ve been lead to believe that our ancestors were ravenous carnivores who ate almost nothing but meat, but recent findings say otherwise. There is a lot of evidence indicating that our ancestors ate mostly plant based diets, with meat eating being rare. You can read more here, including links to articles about what our ancestors actually ate:

https://defendingveganism.com/articles/havent-we-always-eaten-meat

“Animals eat other animals” is a common justification we often hear as to why it’s ok for humans to eat animals. But animals also kill and rape their own kind, and some even eat their own young, so is it ok if humans do that to our own kind as well? Of course not. So we all agree that we don’t want to base our morality on what animals do, so why try to do it in the context of eating animals? Read more about why basing our morality on what animals do is wrong:

https://defendingveganism.com/articles/animals-eat-other-animals-so-why-cant-we

An actual predator/carnivore runs around in the woods, chases after their prey, grabs the animal with their hands and teeth, kills the animal in their mouth, and eats the animal raw. Predators do this because they have to in order to survive.

Now let’s look at what humans do. The vast majority of humans push their carts down a grocery store aisle and buy a slab of rotting decaying flesh. But for now let’s ignore them, and just look at the ones that play dress up and pretend to be predators, AKA hunters. A hunter dresses up in layers of warm clothes, brings all their gadgets and accessories, hides like a coward in a tree, uses a gun or bow to kill a defenseless animal, takes it home, seasons the rotting flesh (ironically with plants), and then cooks it. The human doesn’t do this because they have to, as they have readily available food. Instead they choose to cowardly take a life, mostly in an effort to impress other human men. If a human tried to kill an animal the way actual predators do, at best they would fail miserably and starve to death, and at worst they would be killed by the animal they were trying to kill.

Humans are not predators nor carnivores, they are cowards playing a game of cosplay:

https://defendingveganism.com/articles/are-humans-predators

An omnivore is just an animal that is naturally able to eat both plants and meat, that’s it. But it doesn’t mean that they have to eat meat. We also have to keep in mind that just because our bodies are biologically capable of doing something, it doesn't mean that it's morally right for us to do those things. As omnivores, we can digest human meat, but obviously that's morally wrong. Some 10-12 year old girls and boys are biologically capable of reproducing, but most everyone is in agreement that it's not a good idea to do so. Our bodies are biologically capable of doing all sorts of things that we mostly all agree aren't things we should be doing. So just because our bodies can do something, it doesn't necessarily mean we should.

Separate from that, biologically our bodies are much more similar to herbivores and frugivores than to other omnivores. Check out the biological evidence presented here on why we may be more aptly classified as herbivores:

https://defendingveganism.com/articles/are-humans-omnivores

The world won’t go vegan overnight. Much like crime won’t end overnight, and world hunger won’t be solved overnight, big complex issues don’t get solved overnight. Change happens slowly. So it’s really a silly thing to even ask. If the world were to ever go vegan, or close to it, meat consumption would drop due to supply and demand. Less and less animals would be bred into existence every year, until one day, the madness would simply stop:

https://defendingveganism.com/articles/if-everyone-went-vegan-what-would-happen-to-the-animals

Plants do not feel pain, they do not have feelings, they are not sentient, they do not have a brain, and they do not have a central nervous system. But let’s pretend for a moment that they do feel pain and they are sentient; well that’s actually an argument FOR veganism. Why? Because a meat eater’s diet kills substantially more plants than a vegan’s diet. Why is that? Because not only do meat eaters eat plants directly (fruits, vegetables, grains, legumes, etc.), but the animals they eat were fed plants (soy, corn, grain, grass, etc.) Those animals ate a LOT of plants, so a meat eater’s diet means many more plants were killed. This article goes into more detail, including a link to a scientific study that conclusively shows that plants do not feel pain and are not sentient:

https://defendingveganism.com/articles/do-plants-feel-pain

Let’s compare the two groups:

1. One group pays people to confine, abuse, mutilate, and slit the throats of 90 billion sentient beings a year, so this same group can eat their flesh, drink their secretions, and wear their skin.

2. The other group spreads a message of compassion and kindness and tries to minimize the unnecessary suffering and death of sentient beings as much as possible.

Which one sounds more like a cult to you?

https://defendingveganism.com/articles/is-veganism-a-cult

Veganism is not a diet, it’s a moral and ethical philosophy that seeks to end the exploitation of animals, with a plant based diet being just one aspect of that. What most people don’t know is that the word “vegan” was coined by The Vegan Society in 1949 (they quite literally invented the term and the philosophy), and they came up with the definition of what it meant to be vegan. If you're "vegan for your health" or "vegan for the environment", you wouldn't refrain from things like rodeos and horse races, leather jackets, and products tested on animals. And if you're not abstaining from those, you're not vegan. Learn more about the meaning of veganism:

https://defendingveganism.com/articles/can-you-be-vegan-for-your-health-or-the-environment

It is industry standard practice to mutilate farm animals to maximize profits - they castrate, cut off tails, clip teeth, burn off horns, amputate toes, and cut off part of the beaks - all without any sort of anesthesia. Additionally many of them are confined to small crates where they can't move, and the females are forcefully impregnated against their will. Does that sound humane? Read more here:

https://defendingveganism.com/articles/are-farm-animals-treated-humanely

Humane means “having or showing compassion or benevolence.” Is it compassionate or showing benevolence to kill a young and healthy animal when they do not want nor need to die? Find out if humane slaughter exists:

https://defendingveganism.com/articles/does-humane-slaughter-exist

I blame the media and the poor education system for this blunder. We’ve been indoctrinated to believe that cows produce milk because they’re cows, without stopping to realize that they produce milk for the same reason humans do; they’re mothers that have just given birth. But in order for you to be able to have your milk and cheese, that means their newborn baby cow can’t have their milk, so they must be taken away from their mother. This process is cruel and inhumane. The entire process involves forced impregnation, infanticide, unimaginable suffering, and the premature death of the mother. Learn more about the dairy industry here:

https://defendingveganism.com/articles/dont-we-have-to-milk-cows-or-theyll-get-sick-and-die

At first glance backyard eggs may seem like a victimless crime, but once you learn about the horrors of the egg industry and how chickens have been selectively bred, how baby male chicks are slaughtered within hours of being born, battery cages, and how those egg laying hens end up being dinner, then you’ll see the harm:

https://defendingveganism.com/articles/are-backyard-eggs-wrong

Honey is an animal product just like meat, dairy, and eggs. Eating it is not vegan. I don’t care if it’s local honey from your neighbor who absolutely loves their bees and takes great care of them and doesn’t do any of the things mentioned above. It’s still an animal product, you’re still taking something from an animal that isn’t yours to take, and you’re still commodifying and exploiting an animal for your benefit. That’s what makes honey not vegan.

https://defendingveganism.com/articles/why-dont-vegans-eat-honey

Veganism is not a diet, it is a moral and ethical philosophy that seeks to end the exploitation of animals. It just so happens to also be one of the healthiest ways to eat, assuming you’re not eating a diet of just vegan junk food. Veganism is acknowledged as healthy and is recommended by many leading dietetic and medical organizations. This article provides information on the health benefits of a vegan diet, citations from the organizations that recommend it, and even lists some studies showing that plant based meat substitutes are healthier for you than animal meat:

https://defendingveganism.com/articles/is-veganism-healthy

There’s a common misconception that a vegan’s medicine cabinet is overflowing with supplements. As if the vegan community is singlehandedly keeping the multibillion dollar vitamin and supplement industry in business. We constantly hear that there are tons of vitamins and nutrients that we can’t from eating plants, but that’s simply untrue. Besides B12 (which most non-vegans actually get via supplementation as well, they’re just unaware of it), we can and do get all essential vitamins, nutrients, and minerals from plants. This article goes over the most common ones that non-vegans claim we can only get from animal products:

https://defendingveganism.com/articles/do-vegans-take-alot-of-supplements

Humans need protein. Not meat. Not dairy. Not eggs. And thankfully for us, protein is found in a wide variety of plant based sources. If it were such an issue for vegans to get enough protein, why would some of the leading dietetic and medical organizations in the world recommend eating a vegan diet?

There are vegans in their 30s and 40s who have been vegan since birth, and older people who have been vegan for over 50 years, and they are thriving. And did you know there are world class professional athletes at the top of their game that are vegan? If you want to learn about how easy it is to get enough protein as a vegan, find out which organizations recommend a vegan diet, and learn the names of some of these athletes, check out this article:

https://defendingveganism.com/articles/do-vegans-get-enough-protein

None of us went vegan because we don’t like the taste of meat, we went vegan because we’re against harm, cruelty, and death. Do you ask people who are against murder (which I hope is almost everyone) why they play video games like Call of Duty? If they’re against killing people, why are they simulating it in a game? Isn’t that the same thing? (Side note: if you like the taste of meat so much, why do you season it with plants?)

This statement also glosses over the fact that the vast majority of food on this planet is naturally vegan, and doesn’t taste like meat. You know that vegans eat fruits, vegetables, rice, beans, lentils, and oats, right? Read more:

https://defendingveganism.com/articles/why-do-vegans-want-their-food-to-taste-like-meat

Why do you get so offended that vegan plant based meat substitutes are called “vegan meat” or “vegan chicken” or similar names? Are you offended that hot dogs are called that when they aren’t made out of dog? Are you enraged that chicken fingers aren’t the actual fingers of chickens? Do you get mad that many orange and grape sodas are artificially flavored and aren’t made out of oranges and grapes? I suspect not.

Many foods have names that don’t represent what’s in them, but now all of the sudden it’s a problem because they’re vegan. Why is that? And what’s with the fear of “chemicals”, are you aware that chemicals are the building blocks of life? You know that water is a chemical, right? Have you ever seen the chemicals that are in your beef? Read more:

https://defendingveganism.com/articles/why-do-you-call-your-fake-vegan-chemical-food-meat

Soy meal represents 70% of the value of soybeans, and its primary use is making animal feed for the animal agriculture industry. 77% of global soy is fed to livestock for meat and dairy production. Just 7% of soy is used directly for human food products such as tofu, soy milk, edamame beans, and tempeh. The idea that human soy-based foods are driving animal crop deaths and deforestation is a common misconception:

https://defendingveganism.com/articles/is-most-soy-grown-mostly-for-animals-or-for-people

Feeding cats a plant-based diet can certainly raise controversy, to say the least. Many will claim this practice is animal abuse while failing to recognize that the animals killed for the cats’ food were also abused and subsequently slaughtered. Let’s see what the science says:

https://defendingveganism.com/articles/can-cats-thrive-on-a-plant-based-diet

The “Vegan Purity Test”, which is a form of the “No true Scotsman” fallacy, is one of the biggest causes of infighting I see within the community. The point of this article is to make everyone aware of the many shades of gray that exist, that is up to each individual vegan to make a decision on. There is no universal vegan authority nor a vegan police to decide these things.

I’m not talking about things that are objectively not vegan such as eating animal products, wearing leather, going to rodeos, riding horses, etc. I’m referring to things like eating Impossible Meat, Beyond Burgers, bone char, palm oil, etc. These are things where the product itself contains no animal in it and is vegan/plant based itself, but the company/methods to obtain it was not, so it’s a gray area. Why is it something we need to think about and decide personally? Because just about every food product in existence, save for a very small handful of 100% purely vegan food companies, come from companies that kill lots and lots of animals.

For example, Ragu tomato sauce may be accidentally vegan, but the company sells meat and dairy sauces, so when you buy from them you’re giving your money to a company that willingly exploits and kills tens or hundreds of thousands of animals a year (maybe more?). Is that worse or better than what Impossible did, killing ~500 animals for FDA mandated GRAS testing? Only you can decide that, which is the point of the article. It’s a PERSONAL decision, and no vegan has the authority to decide that for all of veganism. If you come across someone who says “you’re not a vegan” for eating Impossible or for one of the many gray areas, that person is both wrong and a hypocrite, and I bet you $100 I can find something in their household that caused just as many if not more animal deaths than Impossible caused.

Don’t fail the vegan purity test:

https://defendingveganism.com/articles/the-vegan-purity-test